RM Sothebys Amelia Island auctions 2015 – results & analysis

RM Sothebys’ first auction together sent out a clear marker to the competition with another batch of self-generating world records. There was a truly magnificent line-up of cars at RM Sotheby’s and in our pre-auction preview we struggled to pick just a few cars of interest. The auction market has been on a bit of a […]

RM Sothebys’ first auction together sent out a clear marker to the competition with another batch of self-generating world records.

There was a truly magnificent line-up of cars at RM Sotheby’s and in our pre-auction preview we struggled to pick just a few cars of interest. The auction market has been on a bit of a roller coaster ride since Monterey 2014 so we were intrigued to see how RM Sotheby’s would fare.

What did well?

Turbo-charged Porsche – including an ’88 slant-nosed cabriolet, a very “in period” ’79 Turbo all made top estimate or over and all at strong money but with low mileage which is so important to auction buyers now. Ferrari 512’s continued to perform well as Ferrari continues to be the marque of choice for many. A recently restored Ferrari 365 GTC/4 made a strong £306,000 + premium as that model continues to grow in favour. A beautiful 1960 Ferrari 400 Superamerica SWB Cabriolet made just under £4 million + premium which was below low estimate but still sounds like a result to us and we are sure it did to the new owner. The most impressive result for Ferrari was a 599 GTB manual which made a stonking £464,000 with premium added. Expect a run on late, manual V12 Ferraris in due course

A 1970 Nissan Fairlady Z 432 eclipsed top estimate of £136,000 by finding a buyer at £156,400 plus the 10% premium. Nissan’s Z cars have had a bit of assistance in the media recently from a well known market expert, but what come first, the chicken or the egg? A Jaguar XK150 S 3.4 Roadster found £232,000 including premium and a super-cool 1952 Kurtis Kraft 4000 “Bowes Seal Fast” Special sold for £306,000 + premium, way past its estimate.

What didn’t do so well?

Only two lots remained unsold but 52.5% of the lots were claimed for less than the lower estimates which were noticeably more conservative than of late. What looked to be a nice Jaguar XK150 3.8 Drophead Coupe sold for £119,000 + premium, way under the £170,000 lower estimate. Ferrari Dinos look like better value with every sale, another Lamborghini Miura SV crept through the auctions without setting the heather on fire and a Mercedes 190SL missed the mark by about 30%. The 1961 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster sold for just £595,000 on the hammer – way short of estimate.

Patterns and trends

Some strong results against top estimate buoyed up the sale as more cars sold under estimate, less at estimate and more over estimate than previous RM sales. Early Porsche 911 have cooled a little and the 2.7 MFIs are still not finding the predicted money at the sales- although a 2.7 RS finally made it across the block for near estimate money- as have Mercedes 300SL, Ferrari Dino and Daytona. We felt it was a sensible result that sees the auction market stabilising after the high’s of Monterey and the uncertainty of Scottsdale – but are the auctions running out of the best stock?